Compare ‘Shall Icompare thee to a summer’s day?’ by W. Shakespeare, ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’ by E. Barrett Browning, and ‘Sonnet’ by Drayton - Which of the three sonnets made the strongest impression o

Authors Avatar

Compare ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?’ by W. Shakespeare, ‘How do I love thee? Let me count the ways’ by E. Barrett Browning, and ‘Sonnet’ by Drayton. Which of the three sonnets made the strongest impression on you? Explain your preference.

All three of the sonnets are love poems. They are all dramatic monologues in which a poet apparently addresses a person he/she loves. Both Drayton and Shakespeare wrote Shakespearian sonnets whereas E Barrett Browning chose to write a Petrarchan sonnet. Drayton and Shakespeare also include a reversal of meaning in their sonnets but E Barrett Browning has no reversal. Shakespeare and E Barrett Browning also consider that love relates to time and think about the immortality of love. E Barrett Browning’s Petrarchan sonnet is unconventional as it is written by a lady to a man. It’s also unconventional because it is sincere and has no Volta which emphasizes the authenticity of her love to her husband. On the other hand Drayton and Shakespeare’s sonnets are conventional and conform to the structure of a typical sonnet. They both start with one meaning and then cleverly change to another. Another similarity between Shakespeare and Drayton’s sonnets is that they use a great deal of elaborate imagery. Yet E Barrett Browning uses direct and tender language and very little imagery. She also sets a romantic and sincere mood. While Shakespeare and Drayton play amusing games with the reader. Shakespeare and Drayton also use abrupt reversals of meaning where E Barrett Browning uses a consistent and logical structure.

The first sonnet ‘Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day’ by William Shakespeare is a conventional sonnet in which a gentleman apparently addresses a person that he is in love with.  It is a conventional sonnet as it written with a typical rhyme scheme which is a, b, a, b, c, d, c, d, e, f, e, f, g, g, and it includes a Volta. Shakespeare uses a great deal of elaborate imagery and with the reversal of meaning seems to play amusing games with the reader.

Join now!

Shakespeare starts his sonnet with a rhetorical question;

“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”

 and then goes on to say;

“Thou art more lovely and more temperate”

which leads us to believe that she is far more pleasant and beautiful than summer itself. As we read the next line;

“Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May”

a pleasing image conjures up in our minds. The next line suggests that summer is too short and the beauty of the lady will last forever;

“And summer’s lease hath all to short a date”.

The following line;

“Sometime ...

This is a preview of the whole essay